Method and system for using social networks to verify entity affiliations and identities

ABSTRACT

Login credentials for at least one website, such as a social networking website, are received from a user purporting to act on behalf of an entity, for example, in the context of registering the entity with a system for electronic bill payment. Social data relating to the entity is retrieved from the websites using the login credentials. The social data comprises a plurality of social connections, each reflecting a respective relationship between the entity and a respective third party. A plurality of relevant social connections comprising at least a subset of the plurality of social connections is determined, each social connection of the plurality of relevant social connections reflecting a relationship to a respective third party that is deemed to be reliable. A reliability rating of the entity is then determined based on the plurality of relevant social connections.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/608,068, filed on Mar. 7,2012.

The present application relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/363,647, filed on Jan. 30, 2009, which claims priority under 35U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.61/025,255, filed Jan. 31, 2008; U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 61/059,624, filed Jun. 6, 2008; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/088,984, filed Aug. 14, 2008; U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 61/140,752, filed Dec. 24, 2008; and U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/141,819, filed Dec. 31, 2008.The present application also relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/087,215 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/087,219, both filedon Apr. 14, 2011, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/045,948 andU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/046,335, both filed on Mar. 11,2011, which applications claim priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/313,075, filed on Mar. 11,2010, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/356,477, filedon Jun. 18, 2010. The subject matter of all of the foregoing isincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

1. Field

This present disclosure relates generally to automated computerprocessing of invoices, payments, and money transfers.

2. Description of the Related Art

For years companies have been trying to move transactions into anelectronic system. Large businesses have the resources and scale tojustify the installation of new electronic systems. However, for a largesegment of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), such attempts havenot fared well. This is because it is not cost effective for SMEs toinstall a dedicated system and there is no standardized transactionsystem to allow the sharing of costs among many different businesses.

In addition, traditional payment methods typically require relatedparties to know each other's bank accounts. For example, in order for apayor to electronically transfer a payment into a vendor's bank account,the payor must know the vendor's bank account number and ABA routingnumber. When the vendor receives the payment, it can also find out thepayor's bank account number. Thus, entities cannot hide their bankaccount information when making/receiving payments using the traditionalpayment methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding. However, in certain instances,well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoidobscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in thepresent disclosure are not necessarily references to the sameembodiment; and, such references mean at least one.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 are diagrams of two exemplary invoices according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for processing invoicesaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for processingunrecognized invoices according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a typical payment document according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an enhanced payment document according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating enhancedpayment documents according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 shows the top part of a payment document shown in FIG. 6according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for verifying thatchecks are correctly deposited according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of an exemplary invoice according to one embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of an exemplary check according to one embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary system according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an exemplary billing system according toone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for preparing abilling transaction according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for processing checksreceived from payors according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are block diagrams of a system view and an accountview of an exemplary system according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for implementing thesystem shown in FIGS. 16A-B according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a billing and payment system according toone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for inviting entitiesto open accounts at an electronic billing and payment system accordingto one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams of a backside of an exemplary check andan endorsement section of the check according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of a map of trust and familiarity for an electronicbilling and payment system according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a secured document lockbox systemaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a diagram of a cloud implementation of an accounting andpayment system according to one aspect of the systems and methodsdisclosed herein.

FIG. 24 is a diagram of a system for checking the background ofapplicants, according to one aspect of the systems and methods disclosedherein.

FIG. 25 is a flow diagram of a process for collecting and preparinginformation about applicants, according to one aspect of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

FIG. 26 is a flow diagram of a process by which a user may find suitablepartners and go for a bid, according to one aspect of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

FIG. 27 is a diagram of a system for verifying that a person claiming torepresent an entity is indeed representing the claimed entity, insteadof being an impostor, according to one aspect of the system and methoddisclosed herein.

FIG. 28 is a flow diagram of a process for examining the social networkaffiliations of a person claiming to represent an entity to determine ifthe person is indeed representing the claimed entity, instead of beingan impostor, according to one aspect of the system and method disclosedherein

The figures depict embodiments of the present disclosure for purposes ofillustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize fromthe following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structuresand methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing fromthe principles of the present disclosure described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the present disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, variousfeatures are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments andnot by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which maybe requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

Automated Invoice Capture

FIG. 1 shows an overview of an exemplary system 100 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. An electronic service provider110, such as eFax Services, is connected to the Internet 101. Otherintranet or networks could be used instead of the Internet. Alsoconnected to electronic service provider 110 are multiple fax lines (orfax numbers) 111 a-n for receiving faxed invoices. Customer sites 121a-n (of which, for clarity and simplicity, only 121 x is shown) connectto the Internet 101 via connections 120 a-n. Corporate site 105 of anoperator of this exemplary system 100 is represented here by a server102, a storage system 103, and software 104 installed on the server 102.The actual architecture of such a system may, and in most cases probablywill, comprise many servers, multiple storage systems and/or harddrives, and multiple instances of software. All these possiblecomponents are represented here by the single instances of thecomponents of site 105.

FIG. 2 shows typical invoices as received, represented here as exemplaryinvoices 200A and 200B, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. These invoices are issued by one party (the issuer) toanother party (the recipient). Invoices 200A and 200B contain thefollowing data, although with a slightly different layout: issuer logo201, issuer name and address 202, recipient address 203, line items 204and total amount due 205. Other additional data such as terms, due date,etc., are not shown in FIG. 2, but such data are customarily included ontypical invoices.

One aspect of the present disclosure includes approaches for recognizingan invoice, for example identifying the issuer of the invoice and/orrecognizing the layout of the invoice. Invoices can be recognized bycomparing them to a database of distinguishing features. For example,invoices might be recognized based on the logo of the issuer, nameand/or address of the issuer, or other data or signature features thatare unique to an issuer. Once an invoice is recognized, a correspondingtemplate can be applied to extract the relevant data from the recognizedinvoice.

There are various modes by which an invoice may be entered into thesystem and various media on which the invoice may be received. Forexample, the recipient of a paper invoice could fax it to a dedicatedfax number for that recipient's account, such as, for example, any offax numbers 111 a-n shown in FIG. 1. Alternately, the recipient of theinvoice could instruct the issuer to fax the invoice directly to saidaccount's dedicated fax number. In yet another case, an invoicerecipient may have a customized email address residing on or connectedto server 102, to which invoices may be emailed with attached files ofany of various popular word processing or accounting or image captureprograms, such as, for example, MS Word or Adobe Acrobat. In any casesuch a file may be converted into an image file showing the image of theinvoice. In the case of a Word file, depending on the complexity of theformat, direct parsing may be applied. Alternately, the file may beprinted to an Adobe Acrobat portable document file (.PDF) file and thenprocessed as an image.

Once received, invoices can be recognized using many different types ofdistinguishing features beside those discussed above. Additionalexamples include but are not limited to black/white histograms, colorhistograms, sectional signatures and sectional histograms. OCR (OpticalCharacter Recognition) can also be used as a part of the recognitionprocess. It can be applied to just the header, to the entire invoice orto any part of the invoice. The result of the OCR can be used as thebasis for recognizing an invoice. Alternately, OCR can be applied afteran invoice has been recognized, in order to extract data from theinvoice. Other examples of distinguishing features include metadata(e.g., fax number, issuer e-mail address, subject line, pdf- orWord-metadata, keywords, barcode), number of pages, OFX (Open FinancialExchange) download, and XML (eXtensible Markup Language) fields or tags.Other suitable structured files with a certificate may be used in othercases.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary process 300 for processing a typical invoice,such as invoice 200A or invoice 200B, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The process 300 may be implemented by an electronicpayment system such as the one shown in FIG. 1. The invoice image isreceived 310, for example by one of the ways described above. It may beemailed or uploaded or transferred by any of several electronic meansfrom the site of service provider 110 to the site of system operator105. The system 105 compares 320 the invoice to a database in storagesystem 103 that contains distinguishing features for known invoices. Forexample, the system 105 may search for a matching logo in a library ofknown issuer logos or search for a matching signature (or seal) in alibrary of known issuer signatures. In some cases, other distinguishingfeatures (e.g., the originating fax number, the originating emailaddress) may be used in addition to or in place of the logo pattern andsignature to recognize the invoice.

At step 380, the process branches. If no match is found (no branch), theinvoice is sent 390 to a work file, in which unprocessed documents arestored. Treatment of the documents in this work file is explained below,in the description of FIG. 4. If a match is found for the logo patternor signature (yes branch), the system 105 identifies 330 the issuer. Acorresponding template for the recognized invoice is also retrieved 340from storage system 103. The template includes instructions forextracting data from the invoice, for example it may define fieldsidentifying where and/or in what format on the invoice certain data isexpected to be located. In some cases, an issuer may have more than onetemplate. For example, the issuer may have different templates forpersonal users and for business customers. As another example, theissuer may have different templates for single-page and multi-pageinvoices, or may simply change the format of its invoice over time or bygeographic region. Accordingly, the system 105 may use more refineddecision-making processes to select the correct template for aparticular invoice.

Data is extracted 350 from the invoice based on the selected template,using OCR and/or other suitable means. In some cases the image may beprocessed using OCR before it is received 310, for example, by using OCRfunctions provided by Adobe and other tools by other companies. Theinformation extracted in step 350 is preferably stored 360 in a databasethat also resides in storage system 103.

In one approach, once a template is identified for an invoice, data maybe automatically extracted from the invoice (e.g., as identified byfields in the template). In another approach, invoices may be groupedtogether based on their similarity. Data extracted from certainlocations in one invoice may be extracted from similar locations inother invoices in the group. Previously discovered data patterns may bereused on similar invoices. Data can also be manually extracted.Different pattern recognition engines, expert systems, rule-basedengines and other approaches may also be used to extract data frominvoices.

Processed invoices can also be used to check or refine the templates foran issuer. Differences between invoices for the same issuer ordeviations from past norms can also be used to flag potential problems,as well as to request human review.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary process 400 for processing unrecognizedinvoices that were previously stored in a work file in step 390 of FIG.3, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. An invoice isretrieved 410 from the work file, which resides in storage system 103.The invoice is presented for manual viewing 410 by a human operator. Instep 420, the process branches. If the operator determines that theinvoice is a document from a known issuer with known logopattern/signature (yes branch) but, for whatever reason, the logopattern/signature recognition has not worked (for example, a coffeestain on the logo may have made the logo unreadable to the automatedrecognition system), the process moves to step 430. The operator selects430 a matching template and sends 440 the invoice back to therecognition process 300 (e.g., to data extraction step 350).

If, however, in step 420, the operator determines that the invoicecannot be matched with a known template (no branch), the operatorcreates 450 a new template. This new template may be created completelynew or it may be created by modifying a suitable existing template. Thenew template, along with its issuer information and the invoice, isstored 460 in storage system 103. In step 470, a recognition simulationis performed to verify that the new template works correctly, namelythat (1) the automated recognition system can properly identify the newtemplate for the invoice and (2) data can be accurately extracted fromthe invoice based on the template. If, in step 480, the templatesimulation works correctly (yes branch), the invoice is sent 440 to therecognition process 300 as described above (e.g., to data extractionstep 350). If, however, the simulation does not work correctly (nobranch), the template may be manually adjusted 490. The template editormay highlight the section that created problems. For example, a fieldfor OCR may be too narrow or too wide. If the field is too wide, forexample, the system may attempt to interpret a part of the logo as apart of the address. In the case of a field that is too narrow, somecharacters may be cut off. The operator can adjust 490 the templateaccordingly to solve such problems.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is cross-organizationallearning. For example, if an invoice addressed to Customer A isidentified as being from Vendor 1, and the system can then identifyother signature items (image, “from” address, etc.) in the invoice.Thereafter the system may be able to use those other signature items toselect the correct template for the invoice, and use that template tofind the correct data in certain sections of the invoice. Additionally,if a same format invoice from this same Vendor 1 is sent to a secondCustomer B, then the system can recognize from the signature informationthat the invoice is from Vendor 1 and apply the template to the invoiceto extract the correct data.

One advantage of the approach described above is that the capture ofinvoices can be made economical for SMEs. The number of invoicesprocessed can be aggregated over a large number of SMEs, thus achievingeconomies of scale that can be shared by the businesses. In addition,although any one SME may only receive a few invoices from any particularissuer, the community of SMEs in the aggregate may receive a largenumber of invoices from that issuer. This then makes it cost efficientto develop templates or other processes to handle those invoices,whereas it would not be cost efficient for each SME to do soindividually. The system of FIG. 1 can be implemented withoutsignificant additional investment by either the issuers or therecipients. The cost of system 105 is shared by all users and not borneentirely by one user. The recipients can send invoices to the system 105using conventional means, such as fax and email. The invoices betweenissuers and recipients can be settled using conventional means such aschecks, EFT, and ACH, or using advanced means such as the enhancedprivate interbank clearing system described in more detail below withrespect to FIGS. 16A-B and 17. In addition, as described above with theexample using Customers A and B, and Vendor 1, information learned fromprocessing one recipient's invoices can be used to improve the overallprocess for all recipients.

In one approach, the community of recipients can themselves improve theprocess. For example, the system 100 can enable the community to provideinput about distinguishing features of the invoices. Various recipientsand/or issuers may suggest different features for recognizing invoices.There may even be a community process for determining preferred featuresfor distinguishing invoices. A similar process can be used to determinetemplates, including determining fields in templates.

Another aspect of community is that different recipients can exchangetheir experiences of dealing with issuers. Many recipients may be in asimilar situation with respect to issuers. Another beneficial aspect ofthe community is that SMEs are likely to deal with “small” issuers.There will be a very large number of small issuers (approximately 25million in the U.S.), but each one issues invoices to only a smallnumber of customers (typically, 20-30). While it is not economical for acentralized identification process to be applied to this set of issuers,it is economical to let the recipients/issuers themselves help identifythe issuers and, in the aggregate, create a comprehensive catalog of theissuers.

Therefore, the described systems and processes allow the integration ofpaper and/or electronic document invoices into an automated system toreduce the need of manual labor (such as manual input of invoices) inprocessing the transactions. In addition, the systems can be fullyautomated and process these transactions without human intervention.

Enhanced Invoice Payment Document Generation

FIG. 5 shows an overview of a typical payment document 500 with a checksection 501 and a statement section 510, according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure. The payment document 500 is often printed on aletter- or A4-sized bifold with three sections with the check section501 on top and the statement section 510 occupying the lower two-thirds.The check section 501 contains information about a payor 502, a payee503, an amount in words 504, an amount in numbers 505, additionalbanking information 506, and information such as the ABA routing numberand check number 507. The statement section 510 shows credits andinvoices and also shows a total due 511 that typically reflects theamount shown in payment amounts 504 and 505. In some cases, total 511may differ from payment amounts 504 and 505, because the total due 511may take into account other credits or debits.

FIG. 6 shows an enhanced payment document (also referred to as anenhanced invoice payment document) 600, according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure. As shown, the enhanced payment document 600contains a check section 501, a communication section 610, and a payorsupplemental section 611. Elements of the check section 501 aredescribed above in FIG. 5. The lower two-thirds of the payment document600 includes the communication section 610, which in this example is anactual copy or image of the invoice being paid by this check, and thepayor supplemental section 611. The invoice image or copy in thisexample contains the logo 613 of the billing party, the items billed andthe billing total 612, which in this example agrees with the paymentamounts 504 and 505. Payor supplemental section 611 is available foroptional additional payor information, such as notes about thistransaction, a mini-statement, and/or an advertisement.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary process 700 for generating the enhancedpayment document 600 according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The process 700 may be implemented by an electronic paymentsystem (EPS) such as the one shown in FIG. 1. Initially, a user selects701 invoices for payment and enters that information into the system.The system retrieves 702 the selected invoices from data repository 103.

At step 703, the system asks the user if the user wants to write onecheck for multiple invoices and the process branches based on the user'sanswer. This option may be presented to the user each time process 700is implemented, or the user could configure the system to always selector never select this option. If a check is generated for only oneinvoice (no branch), the system sets 704 a counter to 1 and generates705 a payment document print file for a first invoice. As describedabove for the payment document 600, the payment document contains animage of the first invoice. In step 706 the counter is advanced oneincrement. In step 707 the process branches, depending on whetherpayment documents have been generated for all the pending invoices. Ifall have been generated (yes branch), the process advances to step 711,where the payment document print files are printed and the paymentdocuments are stored in data repository 103 for recording, and theprocess terminates at step 712. The print files may be printed locallyor remotely (e.g., through the data repository 103). If paymentdocuments have not been generated for all invoices (no branch), theprocess loops back from step 707 to step 705, and another paymentdocument is generated for the next invoice, and repeats until allpending invoices are paid.

Alternatively, if, in step 703, the user elects, or the system isconfigured to pay multiple invoices with one check (yes branch), thesystem prepares 708 a layout of the payment document. The paymentdocument may optionally be presented to the user for approval 709. Ifthe user does not accept the layout (no branch), the process goes backto step 703, where the user may elect to print a payment document foreach invoice separately. If, in step 709, the user accepts the proposedlayout (yes branch), the system generates 710 a payment document printfile containing multiple invoice images and whose check payment amountequals the total of all the included invoices. The invoice images may besmaller than they would be in a payment document containing only oneinvoice image, depending on the number of invoices being paid and thelayout of the payment document. In step 711, the payment document issent to a printer (local or remote) and data repository 103 (from whichthe remote printing may occur), and the process terminates at step 712.

In some cases, an image of the invoice may be printed on the same pageas the check; while in other cases, multiple images may be printed. Inyet other cases, one or more images may be printed on the back of thepage, opening the front for classic statements or other uses, includingbut not limited to advertisements, promotions or campaigns.

In some cases, instead of or in addition to printing an image of theinvoice on the payment document, an identifier of the invoice image maybe printed on the check section of the payment document. For example, aURL (Uniform Resource Locator) of an invoice image may be printed on theface (or the back) of the check. As a result, one can correctly andeasily identify the corresponding invoice for a check payment byvisiting the printed URL. The identifier can also be incorporated intothe payment transaction in other manners based on the nature of thepayment. For example, if the payment is made through an ACH transaction,a URL of the invoice may be included in the ACH addenda field. As aresult, the URL will subsequently show up on the payor and/or payee'sbank's web summary and bank statement.

Therefore, the described systems and processes provide a simple,easy-to-use approach to generate enhanced invoice payment documents withfeatures that ensure that the credits of the underlying payments areapplied to the correct invoices.

Enabling Correct Check and Electronic Payment Deposit

FIG. 8 shows the top part (check section 501) of the payment document600 shown in FIG. 6. Section 801 shows the back side of the checksection 501 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.Banking information 506 on the front side is shown on the back side as adotted box 806. Also shown is the dotted line 803 that separates theendorsement section 804 from the rest of check back side 801. Also shownis a section 802 a-n where endorsement information is preprinted on theback of the check in high-quality black ink. This endorsementinformation is solicited from the payee of the check before the payormails out the check.

Having the endorsement information thus clearly printed is advantageouscompared to using a standard institution endorsement stamp, because thelatter can be smudged, faint, or otherwise difficult to read. Having theendorsement information clearly printed also reduces the risk of thecheck being erroneously or fraudulently deposited in a wrong account.Also, since the check is eventually cleared by a depositing bank, it isreasonable that the depositing bank verified the endorsementinformation. In addition, the deposit information may be captured fromthe depositing bank and transferred to the drafting bank or anelectronic payment system (EPS) such as the one shown in FIG. 1 toverify payee information. As the real time processing of checks is done,all the payee information and deposit information is available to theinvolved banks. The payor of the check and EPS may obtain suchinformation from the banks. In addition, as described in further detailbelow, the deposit information can also be used to ensure correctdeposit of electronic payments.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary process 900 for ensuring correct paymentdeposit according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Theprocess 900 may be implemented by an electronic payment system (EPS)such as the one shown in FIG. 1. In step 901 the system pulls payee data(e.g., payee identity, payment amount) from data repository 103 forpayment preparation. In step 902 the system sends a message to a payeewho has not previously participated in the service provided by thesystem. These messages may be sent by email, SMS (Short MessageService), facsimile, or other similar messaging systems. Such a messagemay, for example, contain a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that opens aweb user interface upon user selection. A user can confirm the user'spayee identity and enter data such as, for example, banking informationin the web user interface. In other cases, instead of a URL, a callbacknumber may be offered, where a caller can leave payee information with acall center agent or IVR (Interactive Voice Response). In yet othercases, an email or SMS address may be included in the message, for theuser to respond and provide payee information. Additional informationmay be provided to the payee (e.g., in the message or the web userinterface) to assure the payee that, for example, the provided userinformation will not be passed on to the payor, or to show legitimacy ofthe user data solicitation (e.g., showing billing information).

The system receives 903 the solicited payee information (e.g., depositinformation) from the payees and stores 904 the payee information indata repository 103. The payee may respond to the soliciting message andsets up a payee account with all the required deposit information, thushelping the system to obtain new customers. In step 905 the systemretrieves payee information from data repository 103. In step 906 thesystem may additionally verify the received payee information byexecuting a mock transaction. As described in detail below, the mocktransaction verifies payee information through approaches such as therandom deposit approach.

In step 907, the process branches. If the data is not satisfactorilyverified (no branch), the process returns to step 902 and the systemsends a new message to the payee soliciting information. If the data issatisfactorily verified (yes branch), the process branches again in step908 based on whether the payment is an electronic payment. If thepayment is an electronic payment (yes branch), in step 909 the systemdeposits the electronic payment to an account (e.g., through an ACHtransaction, an EFT payment, or a wire transfer) specified by theverified payee information (e.g., account name, routing number, accountnumber). The process ends in step 910. If the payment is a paper checkpayment (no branch), in step 911 the system sends print instructions toa check printer, including instructions for printing information such asthe payee name, account number, ABA (American Bankers Association)number, and other similar information on the endorsement section of thecheck. The process ends in step 910.

If the system receives no response to its message from the payee throughthe web interface within an allotted time period, such as, for example,two business days, the system sends out a check to the payee withoutprinting information on the endorsement section.

The mock transaction utilized by the system to verify 906 payeeinformation may involve one or more transactions designated to verifyvarious aspects of the payee information. For example, the system maycreate a check used to verify the deposit information provided by thepayee and send the check to the payee. The check may include a partialpayment of an outstanding invoice. If the check is subsequentlysuccessfully deposited, the system can assume that the depositing bankhas verified the deposit information, consider such informationverified, and make payment for the remaining portion of the invoice.Thus, the process allows such verification before starting electronictransfers at all, thus helping to add a layer of security to avoidpayments from being misrouted.

As another example, a partial payment of an outstanding invoice may bemade via electronic payment (e.g., ACH) according to the depositinformation provided by the payee, and the remaining balance of theinvoice may be paid via a check. Once the customer has confirmed thatthe electronic payment was successfully posted, the system considers theprovided deposit information successfully verified and makes subsequentpayments electronically according to the verified deposit information.The payee may specify a preference of electronic payment, check payment,or a combination of both. The system can make the payments according tothe user preference.

As a third example, the mock transaction may conduct a random depositthat involves crediting or debiting a random small amount (typically twosmall transactions) and then request the payee to verify either thetransaction ID or the cent amounts. The random deposit approach helps toidentify inaccurate account numbers (e.g., typos) and verify that theperson providing the information has legal access to the account beingset up.

In another aspect, the system reconciles the payee information withadditional data in addition to or instead of the random deposit approachto prevent check fraud (e.g., illegitimate account). For example, thesystem may populate the bank information of the payees from theendorsement from the primary bank shown on previously cleared checks,and use such information to verify against the provided payeeinformation. If the information matches, the payee information is deemedto be verified. If there is a partial match, a judgment call is made bya risk underwriter. If there is no match, the payee fails theverification 906. Such bank information may be solicited from thedepositing bank by separate transmission or from other service providerssuch as SAFECHECKS (see http://www.positivepay.net/). The informationretrieved from previously cleared checks can also be used to reconcilepayee identity (e.g., name) on the record to detect fraud.

In yet another aspect, the system considers certain users (e.g.,administrators of working accounts) trustworthy, and either does notverify 906 or verifies 906 their payee information with less scrutiny.In addition, trusted administrators of working accounts can extend theirtrust or infer trust onto others by being involved with setting upaccounts, for example, of key vendors or clients, thus implicitlyextending their trust. A composite trust rating considers items such ashow often, how much, for how long and how recently successfultransactions have been completed in conjunction with a particularadministrator. In some cases, a single composite score includes weightedaspects. In other cases, two or more scores may be used to representdifferent aspects, individually or in combination.

A trusted administrator can confer some of his or her composite trustrating by inviting and confirming new applicants. Typically, only acertain percentage of influence by the trusted administrators will beallowed to be inferred. The rest can be earned, or determined byproviding multiple references. Certain events as well as non-events mayreduce the trust of an administrator. Others may increase it. Typically,a separate, but related value may be used for the company of the trustedadministrator, creating a network of trust relationships. This can alsobe used to help other things, such as the company's credit worthiness.

Therefore, the described systems and processes generate enhanced paymentdocuments with features that ensure that the payment will be depositedin the correct account, and thus prevents mistakes and frauds. Thedescribed systems and processes also reconcile cleared checks withrecords and name identification data.

Correct Invoice Payment Deposit

FIG. 10 shows an invoice 1000 according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. It has, for example, the address 1001 of the issuer orsender, recipient's address 1002, items billed 1005 a-n, payor accountnumber 1003, invoice number 1004, bill total 1006, and an address 1007to which to send payment. Address 1007 may contain postal address and/orelectronic payment address information.

FIG. 11 shows a typical check 1100, such as a payor might return inresponse to invoice 1000, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Check 1100 has, for example, a payor address 1101, a payeeidentity 1102, an amount field 1106 stating the check amount in bothwords and number, some bank information 1103, an invoice number 1110, anaccount number 1111, signature confirmation or other accreditationinformation 1108, and bank routing information 1109.

FIG. 12 shows an overview of an exemplary system 1200 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. Similar to system 100 shown inFIG. 1, system 1200 includes an electronic service provider 110 and acorporate site 105 both connected to the Internet 101. In addition, theexemplary system 1200 provides a lockbox service at the corporate site105, using server 102, data repository 103, and software set 104. Invarious embodiments, the lockbox service that receives checks for manycompanies, opens the mail, processes the checks, deposits the money intothe accounts, and creates a file that can then be used by the accountingdepartment of the lockbox service client, the lockbox customer. Thesystem 1200 assigns the correct lockbox customer ID. Additional softwaremodules may be present (not shown) at site 105. FIG. 12 also showsconnections 120 a-n for lockbox service customer sites (only 121 x isshown) and connections 1201 a-n for payor sites (only 1201 y is shown).The payors are the end customers of the lockbox service customers.

FIG. 13 shows an overview of an exemplary billing system 1300 accordingto one embodiment of the present disclosure. The lockbox customer atsite 121 x issues an invoice from system 122 x, which has datarepository 123 x and an exemplary instance of billing software 1301. Insome cases, software 1301 may be standard billing software, of any ofthe types that are commonly used. In other cases, software 1301 may be aweb-based billing software or some other type of software. In somecases, the invoice may be issued directly from the customer's system 121x to the payor's system 1201 y, transmitted by postal mailing of aprinted copy or by emailing an electronic copy. In other cases, thebilling information may be passed to the lockbox system 102, where it isprocessed and sent to the payor 1201 y as an invoice. As shown by thedotted lines 1320, 1330, the billing information and the invoice may betransmitted electronically through the Internet 101.

In both cases, the payor number and the invoice number are made uniqueamong the payors, the invoices, and/or payor/invoice combinations. Forexample, if two lockbox customers issue invoices to a same payor, thepayor numbers on the two invoices may be different from each other. Insome cases a unique number may be generated by lockbox operator system102, in conjunction with data repository 103 and software 1302.Generating a unique number may be implemented as appending a uniqueprefix to a standard payor number and invoice number issued by customersoftware 1301. In some cases, the system 1300 provides a plug-in forsoftware 1301 that can communicate with lockbox operator system 102 todownload for each transaction the required information to generateunique numbers.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary process 1400 for preparing a billingtransaction according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Instep 1401 a lockbox customer issues a new invoice to the system 1300. Instep 1402 the system 1300 obtains a unique invoice number for theinvoice, either from the local system 122 x or from the main system 102and data repository 103. In step 1403 the system retrieves a uniquepayor number. If necessary, the system generates a new unique payornumber for a new payor or for existing payors that do not yet have aunique payor number (e.g., for a new lockbox customer). Alternatively oradditionally, the system could create a unique identifier for eachpayee, payor, or payee/payor combination. This unique identifier can bea combination of a generic post office box plus a code or mail stop thatis unique to the payee, payor, or payee/payor combination. In step 1404the system 1300 generates an invoice, e.g., using process 700 as shownin FIG. 7. In step 1405 the process branches. If the invoice is nottransmitted to the payor electronically (no branch), in step 1406 thesystem prints the invoice for postal mailing and the process terminatesat step 1407. If the invoice is transmitted to the payor electronically(yes branch), in step 1408 the system transmits the invoice to the payorin a suitable electronic document file (EDF) format (e.g., PDF) and thenthe process ends at step 1407.

FIG. 15 shows an exemplary process 1500 for processing checks receivedfrom payors according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Instep 1501 a received check is scanned. In step 1502 the system locatesthe unique invoice number on the scanned check. In some cases, thisprocess can be aided by having a unique signature (for example, a prefix“555” or similar) that allows the system to identify the unique invoicenumber more readily. In some cases the system utilizes a process similarto the one described above in FIGS. 3 and 4 to locate data in thescanned check. In step 1503 the system likewise locates the unique payornumber on the scanned check. In most cases, the system needs only one ofthese two numbers to identify the correct lockbox customer account todeposit the check and/or to credit the correct payor account for thepayment. For example, even if two lockbox customers are both depositingpayments from the same payor, the system has assigned two differentunique payor numbers to the payor for the two invoice payments.Therefore, the system 1300 can correctly deposit the two checks to thetwo lockbox customers' accounts respectively and credit the payor's twoaccounts for the two payments accordingly. In step 1504 the system findsthe paid amount on the scanned check. Based on the information obtainedfrom the scanned check, in step 1505 the system accesses data in datarepository 103 to determine which lockbox customer is the payee. In step1506 the system finds the lockbox customer's account information andaccess codes. In step 1507 the process branches based on whether thecheck is an electronic check. If the check is not an electronic check(no branch), in step 1508 the paper check is sent to a lockbox staff tomanually processes the check, and the process terminates at step 1509.If the check is an electronic check (yes branch), the process moves tostep 1510, where the system executes an ACH or EFT transaction todeposit the electronic check, and the process terminates at step 1509.

If neither the invoice number nor the payor number is available when thepayment is being processed, the system could use one or more of thefollowing approaches to resolving the payment. For example, the systemcould provide an exception handling user interface (UI). In this UI, auser (e.g., the payor, the payee, a lockbox staff) could look up alloutstanding invoices across all companies using the lockbox service.This lookup would allow searching on any of the fields on the check,including the payor, the amount, or the payee. Another option would befor the system to credit the payment to the payee, but provide aninterface for the payor/payee to select the invoice it should be appliedto. Alternatively, the system could email the payor/payee to ask whichinvoice the payment was meant for. And, as another option, an agentcould call the payor/payee to determine which invoice the payment wasmeant for.

Therefore, the described systems and processes efficiently and correctlydeposit incoming checks to the correct lockbox clients' accounts,independent of the payor identity and of the accounting software usedfor issuing invoices.

Enhanced Private Interbank Clearing System

FIG. 16A shows an overview of an exemplary system 1600 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. System 1600 includes multiplebanks 1601 a-n and an interbank clearing system 1609, which has a server1610, a data repository 1611, and multiple software instances 1612 a-n.In some cases the clearing system 1609 is implemented in an electronicpayment system (EPS) such as the one shown in FIG. 1. Banks 1601 a-n andthe clearing system 1609 connect through a network 1604. Network 1604typically could be the Internet with added security or Virtual PrivateNetworks (VPNs). In other cases network 1604 may be a private network, awireless network, or a hard-wired network, or any combination thereof.Also shown are exemplary customer and partner accounts 1603 a(a-n) ofrelated parties and a clearing entity master account 1602 a at the bank1601 a and reciprocal clearing entity master account 1602 n andadditional customer and partner accounts 1603 n(a-n) at bank 1601 n.

System 1600 thus permits the making and receiving of payments on theintra-bank host (within a specific bank 1601). Examples of intra-banktransactions include transactions between accounts 1603 a(a-n) and 1602a in bank 1601 a and, respectively, transactions between accounts 1602 nand 1603 n(a-n) within bank 1601 n. The combination of these twointra-bank host-based transfers enables a transfer from a customer 1603a(a-n) at Bank 1601 a to a vendor 1603 n(a-n) at bank 1601 n to becompleted within bank clearing system 1609. Therefore, if a total of allthe balances of the master account 1602 x and customer and partneraccounts 1603 x(a-n) in a single bank 1601 x is calculated, then toclear the transactions all that needs to be done is to effect a transferbetween clearing entity master accounts 1602 a-1602 n at each of therespective banks 1601 a-1601 n, in this example, to keep the clearingentity master accounts 1602 a-n balanced (within preset boundaries). Thetransfer needs not be the exactly accurate amount of the difference ofthe transfers effected at each end, because there may be a base balance,which, in this example, is a base amount in each of the master accounts1602 a-n that is allowed to vary within a certain range.

This approach can be extended not just to two banks, but to dozens,hundreds, or all of the banks in a country or in the world. With a fewstrategically selected banks, in many cases a vast majority of thetransactions can be effected in this way immediately. The balancingtransaction between account 1602 a and another account 1602 x (x withinb-n) to keep all the floats in the master accounts 1602 a-n in rangecould be done, for example, just before the end of the day using a wiretransfer, to effect immediate transfers between banks. Other similarmoney transfer mechanisms (e.g., ACH, EFT) may also be used.

FIG. 16B shows a different view of the same systems, as a view focusedon accounts and not a system view. As shown, the clearing system 1609 isrepresented by a circle and the participating banks are represented byblocks overlapping with the circle. The overlapped portion representsthe corresponding clearing entity master accounts 1602 a-n. The otherbank accounts 1603(a-n) are represented by blocks within thecorresponding banks outside the circle.

Making and receiving intra-bank payments directly on a bank's hostsystem enable the transfers to clear immediately (or return a messageimmediately if funds are not available). Therefore, such intra-banktransactions eliminate the risk to the third-party system for managingpayments. In addition, when access to the bank's host is not available,the bank may provide accelerated messages for returns, allowing the ACHtransactions to clear in one day rather than the customary two-dayperiod.

In FIG. 16B, for example, a transfer from customer 1603 a(a) to vendor1603 a(n) is executed on the intra-bank host of Bank A, from account1603 a(a) to clearing entity master account 1602 a as transfer 1620 aand then on to vendor account 1603 a(n) as transfer 1620 b. However, atransfer from customer 1603 a(b) (at Bank A) to vendor 1603 n(n) (atBank N) is made as transfer 1621 a from account 1603 a(b) to masteraccount 1602 a (at Bank A) and then as transfer 1621 n from masteraccount 1602 n to account 1603 n(n) (at Bank N). Also shown symbolicallyis a transfer 1630 an, symbolizing the clearing transactions betweendifferent master accounts 1602 a, and 1602 n as needed to rebalance thesystem.

FIG. 17 shows an overview of an exemplary process 1700 for implementingthe system shown in FIGS. 16A-B according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In step 1701 all the transactions to be effected arecollected from data repository 1611. In step 1702 the transactions aresorted according to their origin and destination ends. Thus, forexample, a transaction from one customer account to another partneraccount (between accounts 103 a(a-n)) within the same bank do not haveto be taken into account in calculating the clearance between masteraccounts 1602 a-n.

In step 1703 the system splits the sorted transactions into, in thisexample, intra-bank transaction groups A and B, for each of the banks1601 a-n having pending transactions. Group A contains transactions ofmoney from the respective customer accounts 1603 x(x) into the masteraccount 1602 x; and group B from the master account 1602 y into thereceiving partner account 1603 y(y). By splitting the transactions intotwo groups, the transactions transferring money to the master accountscan be effected first. In some cases, for all transactions where theinitial transfer from customer accounts 1603 x(x) to master account 1602x was successful, and where the master account balance 1602 y supportsit, the funds can be transferred immediately to customer accounts 1603y(y).

In step 1704 the imbalance among the master accounts at all theparticipating banks can be calculated. In step 1705 the transactions ingroup A are effected, and in step 1706 the interbank wire is effected.In step 1707, after verifying that the interbank wire has been received,a transaction for group B (those accounts where the master accountbalance 1602 y did not support the second transfer in step 1703) iseffected. Depending on the timing of the interbank wire, transactiongroup B may be executed on the next business day. Intra-bank (host)transactions such as those of groups A and B may be done after close ofbusiness. However, the interbank wire used in step 1706 is onlyavailable at a specific hour. The process ends at step 1708.

It is clear that many modifications and variations of this embodimentmay be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spiritof the novel art of this present disclosure. For example, instead ofhaving two transaction groups, more groups or just a single group can bedefined, with the latter option of one group especially suitable incases where the balance is sufficient. Additionally, the system couldanalyze the money flow among banks, based on a daily, weekly, andquarterly pattern, and other suitable factors, including but not limitedto holidays, weather, economic indicators, stock market indicators, andhence calculate which amounts must be exchanged and which amounts can betaken out of balances, knowing that there is a high likelihood of thebalances being replenished in the next few days. Thus this technique canreduce the amount of wire transactions. Also, in another case, asuper-master account may be established as a single hub to clearmultiple master accounts, or, in other situations, a master account maybe established with banks that have their own real-time links to otherbanks, therefore allowing non-wire transfers among those linked banks inreal time. These modifications and variations do not depart from thebroader spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and the examplescited here are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than in arestrictive sense.

Therefore, comparing to the conventional approaches, the describedsystems and processes transfer money between accounts at different banksfaster and more cost-effectively.

Enhanced Electronic Anonymized Payment System

FIG. 18 shows an overview of an exemplary electronic billing and paymentsystem 1800 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Asshown, the billing and payment system 1800 includes a vendor directory1801, a fee-based accounts receivable module 1802, a free accountsreceivable module 1804, a fee-based accounts payable module 1803, and afree accounts payable module 1805. The fee-based accounts receivablemodule 1802 provides functions such as synchronizing invoices andpayments, sending invoices, inviting customers to the system 1800, weblockbox service, and collaborate. The free accounts receivable module1804 provides functions such as sign up usability, create/uploadinvoices, track payments, collaborate, and upgrade to fee-based accountreceivable accounts. The fee-based accounts payable module 1803 providesfunctions such as collaborate, accelerate, ePayment, adoption, and massinvite. The free accounts payable module 1805 provides functions such aspay bills, collaborate, and upgrade to fee-based account payableaccounts. In general, the services/functions provided by the freemodules 1804, 1805 are a limited subset of services/functions providedby the fee-based modules 1802, 1803, accordingly.

Both the fee-based modules 1802, 1803 provide fee-based services tousers (e.g., customers and/or vendors) with fee-based accounts. Inaddition, the system 1800 invites certain customers (e.g., accountspayable) and vendors (e.g., accounts receivables) to use systemfunctions of the free modules 1804, 1805 for free. Also, customers whohave a fee-based accounts payable account may have a free privatevendor. For clarity, a customer with a fee-based accounts payableaccount 1803 is called a “paid customer”; a customer with a freeaccounts payable account 1805 is called a “free customer”; a vendor witha paid accounts receivable account 1802 is called a “paid vendor”, and avendor with a free accounts receivable account 1804 is called a “freevendor”.

The vendor directory 1801 allows the system to identify a vendor andthus transfer payments without requiring any specific financialinformation about this company. The vendor directory 1801 supportsadditional biller networks and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)vendors, promotes vendors (e.g., account receivables) to directory, andprovides pay to console. In one embodiment, the vendor directory 1801comprises a database that stores information about vendors and some ofthe information (e.g., full business name such as “AT&T Wireless” and“AT&T Small Business Services”, postal address) is searchable by users.The database may also include information about the customers (e.g.,customer's name and mailing address), some of which may be searchable byusers. Each of the users (vendors, customers) has a unique ID (alsocalled the network ID) that can be assigned or generated (e.g., byapplying cryptographic hash function to information about the user).

A paid customer may pay to its accounts-receivable vendors, using one ofthe transactions 1810 a-n, either to paid vendors or to free vendors,which the customer may invite its vendor to become, to simplify theprocess of paying bills. The free vendor gets a free, no-hassle accountthat allows him to receive payments from existing paid customers. Thegoal is eventually to encourage the free vendors to become a paidvendor, as indicated by arrow 1806, so the vendor would have the abilityto also invoice other parties. When a vendor (also called an accountreceivable user or AR user) receives a payment through the system 1800,the payment is automatically matched to the appropriate customer andinvoice in the vendor's accounting system. Paid vendors can likewiseinvite new customers to free accounts payable accounts 1805 or work withexisting paid customer and receive payments using the system 1800.Similarly, the goal here is to eventually let the free customers becomepaid customers, as indicated by arrow 1807. In some cases, theelectronic billing and payment system 1800 may provide promotions toencourage users to invite not-yet-linked customers or vendors. Unliketypically offered trial accounts, the system 1800 may set no time limitfor the limited functionality provided by the free modules 1804, 1805.

By offering enhanced funds flow management, migration into the system1800 becomes easy. Further, the system 1800 offers plug-ins into popularaccounting systems thereby allowing easy integration into a company'soperation without disrupting or complicating internal processes. Infact, each user can update its accounting system without even knowingwhat the other user's accounting system is via the networksynchronization. Thus a vendor can easily achieve single site billing,and customers can have the same convenience. Rather than having to loginto a myriad of web sites operated by different entities (e.g.,vendors, banks, service providers, etc.), all the invoices arrive at onecentral location and flow from there directly into the company'saccounts payable, thus reducing the overhead and time wasted. Also,statements and reconciliations maybe transmitted among the accounts, andon the return path adjustments, credits, discounts, etc., all with muchclearer and simpler communication than today's scribble on a copy of aninvoice, etc.

Additional system functions may include managed visibility of thepayment process. For example, a customer could let a vendor know that hehas received a bill, that the bill has been approved, and when it isscheduled for payment, thus offering better transparency of the process.In some cases queries and or complaints may also be routed over thesystem. However, the customer has control over these transparencyfeatures and can decide what features are to become visible to thevendor. Additionally, the system may offer a mutual rating system thatcould, for example, rate a customer on such characteristics astimeliness of payment, accuracy of disclosed information,follow-through, etc. Because all the data is available, such as billingdate, payment terms, and actual payment, as well as whether there werecomplaints or other issues, a very accurate payment quality can bederived, much more accurate than typical rating agencies can obtain onsmall or medium enterprises.

It is clear that many modifications and variations of theabove-described embodiments may be made by one skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit of the novel art of this presentdisclosure. For example, instead of having two transaction groups, moregroups or just a single group can be defined, with the latter option ofone group especially suitable in cases where the balance is sufficient.Additionally, the system 1800 could analyze the money flow among banks,based on a daily, weekly, and quarterly pattern, and other suitablefactors, including but not limited to holidays, weather, economicindicators, stock market indicators, etc. and hence calculate whichamounts must be exchanged and which amounts can be taken out ofbalances, knowing that there is a high likelihood of the balances beingreplenished in the next few days. Thus this technique can reduce theamount of wire transactions. Also, in another case, a super-masteraccount may be established as a single hub to clear multiple masteraccounts, or, in other situations, a master account may be establishedwith banks that have their own real-time link to other banks, thereforeallowing non-wire transfers among those linked banks in real time. Thesemodifications and variations do not depart from the broader spirit andscope of the present disclosure, and the examples cited here are to beregarded in an illustrative rather than in a restrictive sense.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the described embodiments provide a systemand method that allows two companies to abstract their bank accounts andstill exchange money. In another aspect, the described embodimentsprovide a system and method that allows a vendor or customer to populateand update the data in their customer's or vendor's accounting systemfrom their own accounting system EDI-style. This approach eliminates theneed to re-enter data manually, which typically can also increase risksfor transcription errors. The vendor/customer may define a permissionsmask controlling when and how information is shared during thebilling/invoice payment process (e.g., upon the completion of aworkflow). For example, one company may choose to propagate data to itsvendors informing them that an invoice has been received, that theinvoice has been approved for payment, and that the invoice has beenpaid. A second company may choose, through its permissions mask, to onlyshare the fact that the invoice has been paid, not the interim stepsleading to that bill being paid.

In another aspect, the described embodiments provide a system and methodthat allows synchronization of invoices and payments from vendor tocustomer, and back (e.g., both ways). In another aspect, the describedembodiments provide a system and method that allows vendors andcustomers to define a permission mask controlling when/how informationis shared during the billing/invoice payment process. In another aspect,the described embodiments provide a system and method that allows bothvendors and customers to have a unique network ID in a master directoryindependent of regular items, including but not limited to tax ID, emailaddress, corporation number, etc., thus enabling them to link to othercompanies, and also allowing companies to invite their vendors andcustomers to create an account which links them to the theircustomer/vendor in a single step. In another aspect, the describedembodiments provide a system and method that allows companies to managethe flow of funds into and out of a single bank account for purposes ofmaking bill payments and collecting on receivables. In another aspect,the described embodiments provide a system and method that allows acompany to accept invitations to connect from multiple vendors orcustomers from within a single system, and also allows users to invitegroups of vendors or customers from a database of vendors/customers in acompany's accounting system.

Advanced Invitation Process

FIG. 19 shows an exemplary process 1900 for inviting entities to openaccounts at an electronic billing and payment system, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The process 1900 may beimplemented by an electronic billing and payment system such as the onesshowed in the accompanying figures. Each step in the process 1900 mayinvolve retrieving and/or recording information in a data repositorysuch as the data repository 1611 in FIG. 16 and the data repository 103in FIG. 1.

In step 1901, the system provides a user (hereinafter called an“invitor”) multiple various system options including an option to bill(if the invitor is a vendor/accounts receivable) and/or an option to pay(if the invitor is a customer/accounts payable). In step 1902, thesystem receives from the invitor a user selection of the option tobill/pay, and provides the invitor with a list of candidatebillees/payees and/or an option to input a billee/payee. In step 1903,the system receives from the invitor a user selection (or input) of therespective billee or payee, and provides the invitor with variousapplicable system options including sending the billee/payee aninvitation for a free account with the system. In step 1904 the systemreceives from the invitor a user selection of sending an invitation fora free account to the selected/inputted billee/payee (hereinafter calledthe “invitee”), and provides the invitor with security question optionsthat the invitee must answer in order to accept the invitation. For aninvitee that the invitor knows well, he may draw from a set of standardsecurity questions provided by the system or create a security questionabout personal information, such as city of birth, name of first pet,name of grammar school, etc. Alternatively, the invitor may draw from aset of standard security questions provided by the system or create asecurity question about company-related information that only thecorrect invitee would know, such as, for example, name of manager, lastfour digits of business telephone number, etc. In step 1905, the systemreceives from the invitor a user selection (or input) of a securityquestion, along with the “correct” answer that he anticipates from theinvitee. The system may then receive from the invitor inputs regardingother billing and/or payment transactions, or repeat steps 1901 through1905 to invite other entities.

The completion of step 1905 triggers the system to perform step 1906, inwhich the system creates and transmits an invitation (e.g., an emailmessage) to the invitee. In step 1907, the system receives a response tothe invitation (e.g., email or other type of message) including ananswer to the selected security question. In step 1908, the systemverifies the response by comparing the answer from the invitee againstthe “correct” answer entered by the invitor. The system can beconfigured to, either as default or in case of a non-matching response,present the invitee's response to the invitor for further verification.In step 1909, once the response is verified (either by the system or bythe invitee), the system notifies the invitee of acceptance (or not)into a free part of the system extended to partners of paying users andthe system creates a link between the account of the invitor and the newaccount of the invitee for the purposes of sharing invoice information,making electronic payments, transmitting remittance information, andmaintaining basic information about the invitor and invitee (e.g. theinvitee's company name, address, and other contact info). In some cases,the processes of steps 1906 through 1909 may all be carried out viaemail. In other cases, the initial invitation prepared in step 1906 maycontain a link to a secure web site where the system and invitee executethe remaining steps. In some cases, after an invitor has instructed thesystem to send an invitation, the system may detect that the namedinvitee has already been activated for service by another customer ofthe service (or otherwise has an account with the system). In such acase, rather than sending out an invitation, the system asks the invitorto verify the identity of the proposed invitee to ensure that theinvitee is indeed the same entity. If so, the invitee is then linkedautomatically to the invitor for services such as receiving electronicinvoices and payment services, or receiving electronic transactions atno cost, etc. During the matching process, in some cases there may be anear match, which then can be confirmed by the user; or the system mayask the user to select from a list of existing active users.

Additional Embodiments for Pre-Populated Check Endorsement Section

FIGS. 20A-20B shows another embodiment for pre-populating the checkendorsement section in addition to the embodiments described in thesection titled “Enabling Correct Check and Electronic Payment Deposit”,according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 20A shows anoverview of the back side 2001 of a check 2000. Endorsement section 2002contains a boxed area 2003. FIG. 20B shows exemplary details of boxedarea 2003, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.Details include a checkbox 2004, which the recipient of the check maycheck to accept a free service agreement; an ABA number line 2005; anaccount number line 2006; an email address line 2007; and a printedinformation line 2008, which may be a reference to a URL (in thisexample, www.****.com/tc) at which location the user may see the termsand conditions that he accepts when he checks the box 2004. In somecases, a signature may also be requested next to the box, givingpermission from the invitee to open an account in his or his company'sname.

A billing and payment system creates a check for a user of the system tomake a payment to a non-user, and pre-populates the endorsement sectionas illustrated in FIGS. 20A-20B and described above. Once the non-usercashes the check, the system receives an image of the cashed check andanalyzes the filled boxed area 2003 to determine whether the non-useraccepted the free service agreement (i.e., checked the checkbox 2004).If the non-user accepted the agreement, the system enrolls the non-userto the free service and sends an email to the non-user to the addressthe non-user provided in the boxed area 2003.

Map of Trust and Familiarity

FIG. 21 shows an exemplary overview of a map 2100 of trust andfamiliarity for an electronic billing and payment system, according toone embodiment of the present disclosure. The map 2100 has a familiarityaxis 2101 and a trust axis 2102. The axis 2101 shows the range offamiliarity (i.e., how much experience the system has with an entity),from known to unknown. The axis 2102 shows the range of trustworthiness,from trusted to untrusted. The familiarity and trustworthiness of anentity (or user) can be determined based on information the entity hasprovided, and/or the length of time the entity has been makingtransactions in the system without problems, such as, for example,cancelled checks to provide proof of actual business, uncovered checksproviding information about lack of funds or lack of planning, etc. Forexample, the more positive transactions are recorded for an entity, themore the entity is trusted.

The system has essentially four zones of entity qualifications asillustrated in the map 2100. There is a safe zone 2103, which comprisesknown and trusted entities. Entities that are less well known and/orless well trusted are in an O.K. zone 2104. Entities whose qualities areunknown, usually because they are new to the system, are in an unclearzone 2105. Everything else beyond those three zones is an unsafe zone2106. Depending on how the system is configured, new accounts may startin different locations in the map 2100, such as points 2110, 2111, and2112. As the entities establishes itself to the system, theirtrustworthiness/familiarity to the system move in the map 2100 alongtrajectories such as, respectively, 2120, 2121, and 2122, whichtrajectories may be linear or not, depending on such variables as typesof transactions, time periods between transactions, amounts transacted,and hopefully eventually, ending up in the safe zone 2103. For example,if any entity transacts only one or a few transactions of very smallamounts, it may not progress beyond the OK zone 2104, because the systemdoes not know if these transactions are only for the purpose of gaininga trusted rating from the system.

In some cases, these trust ratings may be available to customers; inother cases, this data may be available internally only, for internalassessment of transactions. In yet other cases, the data can be madepublicly available; thus the system can act as infrastructure or basisfor a rating agency. Also, additional information such as timeliness ofpayment, etc., may be separately rated or considered in the map 2100.Further, based on the receivables side, a company may be rated on thetimeliness of payments received from it relative to the due date.Accordingly, a lot of information may be mined from the informationderived from behavior of both customers and their partners, but notnecessarily all information may be made public (as in available tocustomers or to the public in general, for example, for a fee), nor isit desirable to make all the information public. Additionally, thesystem may take into account the referral or recommendation of aparticularly trusted party, such as a CPA firm or an accreditedbookkeeping firm. Further, these trusted parties themselves may havetheir ratings going up or down based on their behavior and the behaviorof the companies they have recommended.

Secured Document Lockbox System

FIG. 22 shows a secured document lockbox system 2204 for invoices andother accounting-related documents, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The system 2204 receives documents from sources suchas system users 2201 (e.g., customers, vendors), service partners 2202(e.g., CPAs, accountants, etc.), and internal system services 2203(e.g., of a billing and payment system). These documents may be scannedand emailed to the system 2204, faxed to the system 2204, or sent asphysical paper documents to the system 2204. In some cases, for example,customers 2201 may ask partners 2202 to send their invoices and/or otheraccounting-related documents to a post office box address of the system2204.

All received documents are placed in a queue 2205, out of which they areprocessed by one or more of various means 2206 a-n. The queue 2205allows for efficient and secure document processing by a third party.The system 2204 restricts documents/information made available toprocessing means 2206 to only those necessary for the processing (andnot any other potentially sensitive data in the customer's account), andthereby enables a much more secure process. By allowing the processingto be routed to a single queue, the system 2204 becomes a centralresource for working through documents across a number of uniqueaccounts belonging to different companies or organizations. Examples ofthe processing means 2206 include manual input of printed data by dataentry personnel, OCR scanning, and any other similar suitable processingmeans.

In one embodiment, every document is processed by at least two separateprocessing means 2206, as an accuracy check. If the two processingresults do not match, the document is processed further (e.g., byanother processing means 2206) to obtain at least two matching results.When the document is satisfactorily processed, it is stored in a datarepository 2207, from which it is then passed back to the correspondingdocument source, and/or entities needing it. To pass back the processeddocument, the system 2204 may send a message with the document attachedas a secure importable file that could be imported directly into theaccounting system of the receiving entity. In some cases, the system2204 may send the document directly to an online accounting system (notshown), subject to the online accounting system providing the rightcredentials; while in other cases the system 2204 sends only anotification, telling the entity to go to a secure web site and downloadthe file, in a manner similar to services currently available to bankingcustomers.

Enhanced Interoperability for Heterogeneous Accounting Systems

Software as a Service, or “SAAS”, is one example of a server providedtransaction processing system. In accordance with the presentdisclosure, a SAAS-based system for sending bills and payments inconjunction with a third-party accounting system may deploy adownloadable program interface (PI) to configure the third-partyaccounting system and then send and receive data between the twosystems. Alternatively, a communication module between SAAS units,called a CSU, for “Communication SAAS Unit”, may be deployed in a serversupporting the SAAS based system to configure the third-party accountingsystem and then send and receive data between the two systems. Thisdata, for example, may include electronic invoices or bills andelectronic payment data. Further, the transmitted bills may contain anelectronic signature, a line item billing, and/or othertransaction-specific meta data, and, based on cash flow needs andoutstanding bills, some or all customers may be offered a verysubstantial time-limited discount for immediate payment. Also, customersmay use the line-item billing feature to withhold partial payments forspecific issues attributed to specific items.

FIG. 23 shows an overview of an exemplary cloud implementation of anaccounting and payment system 2300, according to one aspect of thesystems and methods disclosed herein. Throughout this disclosure, whenreference is made to an invoice, the term “invoice” is meant to include“bill”, “payment due notice” or any other term used to describe that atransfer of product or funds is needed for work performed, servicesrendered, product shipped or delivered. Similarly the term “payment” asused herein is exemplary only. Other terms used to describe the otherside of a business transaction, such as a shipping remittance, creditmemo, vendor credit, etc. are within the scope of meaning of the term“payment” as used herein. SAAS based system, or cloud, 2301 for paymentservice contains a SAAS engine 2304, a SAAS-based vendor module 2305 andbuyer module 2307. These two modules, vendor and buyer, interact witheach other through the SAAS engine 2304. At vendor site 2319, accountingsystem software 2313, such as, for example, Quick Books 2313, isrunning, as well as an instance of a programming interface (PI) 2309 d.PI 2309 d preferably automates certain processes and enables directinterface between the local accounting system software 2313 and theSAAS-based vendor module 2305. PI 2309 d may be, in some cases, aseparate application that requires installation on the vendor's server,or in other cases it may be simply a Java-style or Java Script typeapplication that is downloaded by a web browser as part of a portal pageand can interact with the software on a local machine. In addition toQuick Books, other software that can be supported in a similar mannermay include Peachtree, Dynamics, MAS90, etc. Further, upon integrationof the accounting system software 2313 with the SAAS-based billing andpayment system 2301, a vendor can better manage his billing space, notonly for actual orders, but also, for example, reaching and implementingcash-flow-based decisions utilizing settings 2315, as discussed below.The cash flow can be driven both on the macro level, for all pendingorders, as well as on the micro level, for particular items orcustomers. These features enable a vendor to send a message, forexample, saying that if payment is received in the next 24 hours thebuyer will receive a discount, enabling a yield management mechanism forcash flow.

The vendor module 2305 interacts with SAAS payment and billing engine2304 to send out e-invoices 2306. The invoice contains three mainsections (2316, 2317 and 2318). The first section 2316 comprises apacket with a viewable portion and a metadata portion. The metadataportion interfaces with other accounting systems, etc., for example,descriptive of the type of expense, thus facilitating automatic bookingafter an initial learning. The viewable portion enables users to viewand manipulate data, as well as providing more information, in case themetadata is not directly useable for processing. Additional informationmay also be included in the invoice format, such as, for example, itemsabout payment terms, etc. Further, in some cases, as a second section,an electronic signature 2317 and/or other suitable certificates may beincluded, to verify the source of and/or the authenticity of theinvoice, and a more organized line item metadata set 2318 (thirdsection) also may be included, with more detailed information, includingbut not limited to type of expense information, item, and evenmanufacturer's model numbers, etc. This organized metadata form can beused on the receiving side, in this example by the buyer, to set up aformat for transfer of data. The first time data is entered, the usersees a prompt from the system on his screen. Once the system learns thedata format, the system is set up, and on future invoices it can thenautomatically transfer information and place it in the correct field inthe local accounting software 2311, in this example Peach Tree.

The buyer module 2307 of the SAAS based billing and payment system 2301interacts with, for example, an instance of Peachtree software 2311 inbuyer site 2327 with the help of a programming interface PI 2309 c,similar to the one discussed above with respect to the vendor site. Insome cases, one PI 2309 x may be used for many different local softwarepackages; in other cases, the system may guide the customer to configureor detect his setup, then store the setup parameters in an appropriatelocation, either locally or in the SAAS-based billing and payment system2301, and accordingly download the correct setup on the fly. Caching inthe browser may also be allowed. The engine 2304 creates all necessaryinteractions and issues not just invoices, but also checks 2312. Thechecks may be matched and converted into electronic checks, whiche-checks may be flagged if they have a certificate and then processedautomatically.

SAAS interaction module (SIM) 2308 has its own programming interface PI2309 a, which can be based either in the SAAS cloud 2301, as PI 2309 a,or, as PI 2309 b, in the other third-party vendor SAAS cloud 2302, oreven on the computer and or browser of the client, in this examplevendor 2310, using a SAAS accounting solution from, for example,Netsuite 2329, with, potentially and in some cases, an additional PI2309 b. If a vendor of SAAS accounting services offers appropriatepublished APIs, a communication module CSU 2303 between SAAS units, maybe deployed for direct access, thus not involving the user directly. Insuch cases, appropriate credentials must then be stored and accessibleto the CSU 2303 for transactions.

SAAS cloud 2302, for example, contains a NetSuite instance 2329. TheNetSuite customer, in this case the vendor on vendor site 2328, uses aweb browser 2310 to interact with the SAAS cloud 2302, and the PI may beinstalled either on the SAAS-based billing and payment system 2301 sideor on the third-party SAAS side (in this example NetSuite; other,similar cloud-based services would function in a similar way). ModuleSIM 2308 then interfaces directly as described above with a programminginterface. In other cases, a complete system exchange interface CSU canbe built and can interface directly with published API interfaces of athird-party vendor. Rather than emulating manual functions of creatingand sending out invoices and payments, such a complete system exchangeinterface CSU would enable a full integration of functionality, thusreducing required steps, with attendant time-and-cost savings. FIG. 24show an overview of an exemplary system 2400, according to one aspect ofthe systems and methods disclosed herein. Internet 2401 connects toserver 2402, on which resides data store 2403, which store may be a diskdrive or any of various types of data storage means currently in use.Data store 2403 contains data 2404 a-n, which may include, but are notlimited to, data objects, data bases, executable programs and drivers,operating system, etc. Also connected to Internet 2401 are customersites 2420 a-n. Each site (not all sites shown) contains at least onecomputer 2410, with at least one available data store 2411, which datastore holds data objects 2412 a-n. Each computer 2410 may also haveseveral standard devices and peripherals, including, but not limited to,a keyboard, pointing device, monitor, audio input and output devices,etc., all not shown here for clarity.

Enhanced Business to Business Information

FIG. 25 shows an exemplary process 2500 for collecting and preparingenhanced information relating to businesses according to one aspect ofthe systems and methods disclosed herein. In step 2501, the systeminitiates the process. In step 2502, the system retrieves transactioninformation relating to one or more businesses from the data store 2403.In various embodiments, the transaction information comprises aplurality of transactions between businesses, which could includecurrent and historical transactions relating to:

-   -   payments    -   receipts    -   accounts payable    -   accounts receivable

In an embodiment, the transaction information could be retrieved, inwhole or in part, from an electronic payment system such as describedabove. Additionally or alternatively, transaction information could beretrieved from multiple transaction processing systems operated byvarious service providers.

In step 2503, the system retrieves rating information relating to one ormore businesses from the data store 2403. In various embodiments, therating information comprises a plurality of ratings, each ratingcomprising a credit rating of one business by another and/or ratings ofindividual transactions between businesses. Regardless of whether arating relates to a business as a whole or individual transactions, eachrating can reflect an evaluation of the business and/or the transaction,such as, for example,

-   -   timeliness of payment    -   accuracy of disclosed information    -   follow-through    -   quality of service and/or product    -   courtesy

In an embodiment, the rating information could be retrieved, in whole orin part, from an electronic payment system such as described above.Additionally or alternatively, rating information could be retrievedfrom multiple transaction processing systems operated by various serviceproviders.

In step 2504 the system retrieves offering information relating to oneor more businesses from the data store 2403. In various embodiments, theoffering information comprises a plurality of offerings, each offeringcomprising of a description of an offer that a business is extending toother businesses. Such offerings could include, for example:

-   -   a product offering    -   a service offering

In an embodiment, the offering information could be retrieved, in wholeor in part, from an electronic payment system such as described above.Additionally or alternatively, offering information could be retrievedfrom multiple transaction processing systems operated by various serviceproviders or, additionally or alternatively, from websites operated orcontrolled by one or more businesses extending such offers.

In step 2505, the system retrieves additional public informationrelating to one or more businesses from a plurality of publicinformation sources, for example, information provided via websitespublicly accessible over the Internet. Such websites could include, forexample:

-   -   a website of a business    -   a third-party information service    -   a third party rating service,    -   a social networking site

In an embodiment, the public information could be retrieved fromwebsites utilizing any technique known in the art such as, for example,screen scraping techniques, a data feed, such as an RSS feed, and/or anAPI. Such publicly accessible websites could represent free websitesand/or websites open to the public that require a subscription ormembership fee. Additionally or alternatively, public information couldbe acquired through any other media now known or later to be developedsuch as, for example, a database distributed on computer readable media,or printed materials from which information could be acquired by, forexample, OCR analysis of the printed materials.

In step 2506 the system generates enhanced profiles for one or morebusinesses based on the collected information which the then systemstores in the data store 2403, and in step 2507 the process ends.

In creating enhanced profiles, the system can perform various types ofanalyses using the collected information that can reveal variouspatterns, attributes and behaviors of businesses indicate whether agiven business would be a good, bad or risky business partner. Forexample, the system could identify patterns in payment transactions of abusiness that identify whether a business consistently makes payments oftime, is consistently late in making payments, or has only been late onjust one or two occasions. In various embodiments, such patterns couldbe tracked over multiple time frames of shorter or greater length

In another example, the system could determine the credit-worthiness ofbusinesses and/or individuals that owe a given business money. Such ametric can, for example, indicate how likely it is a given business willbe able to pay on time, regardless of past behavior. Similarly, thesystem could look at the history and current trends of the ratio of thebusiness's receivables and receipts to the business's payables. Such ametric can, for example, indicate a business's credit orcreditworthiness is deteriorating if, for example, historically, thebusiness has had higher receivables to payables, but has recently begunto trend to higher payables.

In various embodiments, the profile creation process is executedperiodically, for example, once per day. In other embodiments, theprofile creation process is executed essentially continuously, forexample, in real-time or near time, for example, in response to thecreation of new transaction or ratings data. In various embodiments,where information relating to an existing enhanced profile is received,the profile is updated using the new information.

FIG. 26 shows an exemplary process 2600 by which an entity, such as aperson or a business, may be able, for example, to find suitablepartners for a particular business need and establish relationships withsuch prospective partners according to one aspect of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

In step 2601, a business indicates that it wishes to search for a vendorto fill a specific need. Such an indication could be provided to thesystem, for example, by the business, over a network such as theInternet, using a user interface provided by systems and methodsdisclosed herein. The business may have a variety of reasons for seekingsuch a vendor, for example, the business may be seeking:

-   -   to make or receive a bid for a product and/or service    -   to find possibilities to link up financially with existing trade        partners, for example, to arrange different than standard        payment terms possibly including a third party, such as a        partner bank or other financial institutions

In step 2602, the business enters the information to be used as a basisfor searching for a vendor to fill a specific need. In an embodiment,the business enters a vendor query that comprises one or more vendorselection criteria. In various embodiments, the vendor selectioncriteria could include one or more of:

-   -   name    -   location    -   products and services    -   specific offerings    -   credit rating by other businesses, including ratings relating to        payment, accuracy of disclosed information, follow-through and        courtesy    -   credit rating on individual business transactions, including        ratings relating to payment, accuracy of disclosed information,        follow-through and courtesy    -   patterns of payment    -   history and current trends of the ratio of the business's        receivables and receipts to the business's payables    -   relationships with other businesses    -   additional items: shared delivery or shared purchasing to        improve conditions and spread risks    -   special service level agreements and guarantees

In step 2603, the system searches previously prepared results in thedata store 2403 for available matches to the vendor search criteria. Invarious embodiments, such previously prepared results include aplurality of enhanced profiles for a plurality of businesses created asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 25. In various embodiments, thesystem uses the vendor search criteria to search the data store 2403 soas to identify a subset of the plurality of businesses whose respectiveenhanced profiles match the vendor search criteria.

In step 2604, the system presents a list of the results of the searchperformed in 2603 above to the querying business. In variousembodiments, the list comprises a plurality of list entries, each listentry providing a representation of respective information relating toone of the subset of businesses identified by the vendor query. In anembodiment, the information relating to a respective business comprisesat least a portion of the respective enhanced profile of the respectivebusiness.

In various embodiments, the results may be grouped different ways, suchas, for example, by businesses with which the querying business has anexisting relationship and then by businesses that are new to thequerying business. Such groupings can enable the user to compare andcontrast existing and new vendors, and also to compare credit ratinginformation from other sources to help in the process of decidingwhether to use one or more vendors from the list or search again.

In step 2605, the querying business can decide whether make aselection(s) from the list or search again. If one or more vendors areselected (Yes), in step 2607 the querying business establishes arelationship with the vendor by any of various means, such as email,etc., as indicated in step 2609 and described in greater detail above.In step 2608 the process then ends. If, however, in step 2605, the userdoes not select any of the vendors in the list presented in step 2604(No), the user can, in step 2610, modify the vendor query and theprocess begins again at step 2603. The user can also terminate theprocess at any step.

Enhanced Verification Through Social Networks

FIG. 27 is a diagram of a system 2700 for verifying that a personclaiming to represent an entity is indeed representing the claimedentity utilizing one or more social networks according to one aspect ofthe system and method disclosed herein.

Various entities, including corporations and individuals, mayperiodically attempt to register with a system for automated computerprocessing of invoices, payments, and money transfers as describedabove. In various embodiments, the registration process is ultimatelydriven by a person accessing the system from a remote computer via theInternet. A person who is not affiliated with, or authorized by, anentity may attempt to fraudulently register the entity with the systemfor a variety of fraudulent purposes.

Entities and/or individuals legitimately acting on behalf of entitlesmay be registered as members with various social networks such as, forexample, LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, and XING.COM. Over the course of conductingbusiness, such social network member accounts typically acquire a numberof social connections comprising various relationships with othermembers. For example, other businesses and/or individuals that conductbusiness with the entity (e.g. customer or suppliers) may “friend” or“like” the entity.

The term “social network” should be broadly understood to include notonly those sites which are commonly deemed to be social networks, suchas LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, but can also include any other social-enabledwebsites now known, or later to be developed in the art. A“socially-enabled website” should be understood to broadly refer to awebsite where members of the website can interact with one another andform explicit or implicit social connections. Explicit socialconnections could include, for example a member's explicit designationof a relationship to another member such as, “friend”, “co-worker”,“relative”, “customer”, “like” and/or “follow”. Implicit connectionscould be inferred from a pattern of communication between members, forexample, members who exchange a number of messages over a period oftime, for example, 10 messages over 6 months, could be regarded ashaving a social connection.

The various social connections of an entity on a social network canprovide an indicator of the reliability and/or creditworthiness of theentity. For example, where business is a friend of, or liked by, anumber other entities and/or individuals who have one or more indicatorsof reliability, the business may be considered to be reliable. Suchindicators of reliability could include, for example:

-   -   An entity or individual is known to be credit worthy.    -   An entity or individual is itself “friended” or “liked” by other        entities or individuals known to be credit worthy.    -   An entity or individual has been in business for a number of        years.    -   An entity or individual does not have a criminal record.

Thus, when a user attempts to register an entity and/or individual witha system for automated computer processing of invoices, payments, andmoney transfers, the system may, as part of an overall process forverifying the registration, request the user to supply the logincredentials of social networks of which the entity and/or individual isputatively a member. The system can then evaluate the social graph ofsuch members to assign a rating to the entity or individual thatreflects the reliability of the entity or individual. Where the ratingfails to meet a predefined threshold, registration can be denied.

This is based on the presumption that where a user is legitimatelyattempting to register an entity or individual with a system forautomated computer processing of invoices, payments, and moneytransfers, the user will be in possession of the login credentials forlegitimate social networking accounts for the entity or individual, andsuch social networking accounts will reflect a number of socialconnections with other individuals that have indicia of reliability.

Conversely, if the user is fraudulently attempting to register an entityor individual with a system for automated computer processing ofinvoices, payments, and money transfers, the presumption is that theuser will not present login credentials for social networking accountsor will present login credentials for fraudulent social networkingaccounts for the entity or individual. It is further presumed thatfraudulent social networking accounts for the entity or individual willlack connections to other members with indicia of reliability.

Additionally, or alternatively, it is also presumed that where a usersupplies login credentials for more than one social networks (e.g.FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN and TWITTER), that there will be a degree of overlapbetween the social connections found on the social networks. Thus, in anembodiment, where two social networks are given, and a connection isfound with an entity on both networks, the connection may be given agreater weight in determining the reliability of the user.

FIG. 27 presents an exemplary system 2700, in an embodiment, which issimilar to system 2400, described above, and incorporates all theelements of system 2400. In addition, the system 2700 is communicativelycoupled to third-party social networking sites 2701 a-n, for example,without limitation, LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, XING.COM, and so forth.

A plurality of user computers 2702 a-n are operatively connected to thesystem and to the social networking sites 2701 a-n. In an embodiment,could be any type of user computing devices now known in the art orlater to be developed such as, for example, a desktop computer or aportable device, such as a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a displaypager, a radio frequency (RF) device, an infrared (IR) device, aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld computer, a tabletcomputer, a laptop computer, a set top box, a wearable computer, anintegrated device combining various features, such as features of theforgoing devices.

In an embodiment, the computers 2702 a-n are connected through Internet2401 to a server 2402, on which resides data store 2403, which store maybe a disk drive or any of various types of data storage means now knownin the art or later to be developed. The data store 2403 contains data2404 a-n, which may include, but are not limited to, data objects, databases, executable programs and drivers, operating system components, andso forth. In an embodiment, the server 2402 supports a system automatedcomputer processing of invoices, payments, and money transfers asdescribed above.

In an embodiment, various users access the social networking sites 2701a-n via user computers 2702 a-n and, inter alia, set up socialnetworking accounts on behalf of an entity. Such social networkingaccounts may be legitimate (i.e. authorized by the entity), or may befraudulent. Over the course of time, legitimate social networkingaccounts on the social networking sites 2701 a-n will tend to accumulatesocial connections to other entities that have at least some indicia ofreliability.

In an embodiment, various users access periodically the system forautomated computer processing of invoices, payments, and money transfershosted on the server 2402, via user computers 2702 a-n, for the purposeof, inter alia, registering with the system. In an embodiment, theregistration process requires users registering an entity or individualwith the system to supply login credentials for at least one socialnetworking account for the entity or individual. In an embodiment, theregistration process then accesses the social networking sites 2701 a-n,retrieves social data for the entity or individual from the applicablesocial networking sites, and uses the social data to assign areliability rating to the entity or individual, as described in greaterdetail above and below with respect to FIG. 28. In an embodiment,entities and individuals having a reliability rating below a thresholdare refused registration.

For the purposes of the present disclosure social data in the context ofthis application shall mean any data related to, or derived frominteraction networks, public, semi public or private. It shall not belimited to data extracted from social media, but from any data derivedfrom interaction of entities (a “free form” “social connection”), beingnatural or legal or otherwise, including but not limited toassociations, sovereigns etc. This data may be harvested not only fromsocial networking sites, but by tracking entities in any kind ofpublications, those entities' interactions and aggregating the dataobtained in such manner

FIG. 28 is a flow diagram of a process for examining the social networkaffiliations of a person claiming to represent an entity, such as abusiness or an individual, to determine if the person is indeedrepresenting the claimed entity, instead of being an impostor, accordingto one aspect of the system and method disclosed herein

In step 2801, a user working, for example, on a computing device 2402 x,creates one or more member accounts on one or more social networks 2701a-n. In an embodiment, each member account is associated with logincredentials known to the user. In an embodiment, each member accountpurports to represent an entity, which may be a natural person or anykind of legal entity such as a corporation. Such social networkingaccounts may be legitimate (i.e. authorized by the entity), or may befraudulent.

In an embodiment, when the user attempts to register a system forautomated computer processing of invoices, payments, and money transferssuch as described above, the user may be required to supply logincredentials 2802 for at least one social networking account of an entitythe user purports to represent. In an embodiment, the user is requiredto supply login credentials 2802 for at least one social networkingaccount of the entity when the user is attempting to access an existingaccount for the entity with the system. In an embodiment, the user isrequired to supply login credentials 2802 for at least one socialnetworking account of the entity as part of applying for a higher creditscore or some specific feature of the system, such as, for example,faster payment timing.

In an embodiment, during the course of registration or applying for aspecific feature of the system, user may supply registration informationidentifying one other more third-party entities with which the entityhas some kind of connection. Such connections could be any type ofconventional business connection such as, for example:

a business reference;

a personal reference;

a creditor;

a debtor;

a customer;

a supplier.

In an embodiment, the system stores the login credentials in data store2403. In an embodiment, the login credentials are heavily encrypted,because such login credentials are favorite targets of hackers. In somecases, the credentials may be stored in a separate data store (notshown), with data store may be protected by additional securityfeatures, including, but not limited to, requiring an offsite key foraccess. Alternatively, in an embodiment, if the entity is linked to thesystem, such link could provide an alternate way for the system totraverse the network of the subject entity without storing logincredentials within the system.

In step 2803, the system, using the login credentials supplied in step2802, logs in to one or more social networks 2701 a-n and downloadssocial data relating the to entity and its affiliations. In anembodiment, the social data comprises data relating to the entity'ssocial connections with one or other entities on one or more socialnetworks. In step 2804, the system organizes social connection into amanageable format, in an embodiment, into an open database connectivity(ODBC) format. In step 2805, the system stores the reformatted data inthe data store 2403.

As noted above, it should be understood that in various embodiments, theprocess may obtain social data relating to an entity from other onlinesources that do not, per se, hold themselves out as social networks, ormay not be generally regarded as such. One example could be an emailaccount for an entity which may reveal various communications betweenthe entity and other entities. In an embodiment, where there is athreshold number of communications from and to another entity, the otherentity could be regarded as a social connection of the entity. Anotherexample could be a website that enables to interact with one anotherand/or form connections or associations of any type such as, forexample, the FLICKR photo sharing websites. In an embodiment, datasources that are secured by a user ID and a password are preferred. Inan embodiment, any publicly accessible data source where associationsbetween entities may be referenced, for example, news websites orcorporate websites of various entities

In step 2806, the system compares overlaps between the informationobtained from the various social networks (and other sources, ifapplicable) and registration information. In an embodiment, where agiven social connection is identified in multiple sources, such a socialconnection may receive a greater weight than social connectionsidentified in a single source. For example, a social connectionidentified in two social networks may have a greater weight than socialconnections identified in a single social network. In an embodiment,social connections that do not appear in at least one secured source(e.g. password protected) are discarded. For example, a connectionbetween an entity and a third-party entity referenced in registrationinformation, but not in at least one social network may be discarded.

In step 2807, the system determines a relevancy level of the socialconnections identified in step 2806.

In an embodiment, a social connection is considered to be relevant ifthe connection relates to a third-party entity that is determined to bereliable. A third party entity could be determined to be reliable in anumber of different ways. In an embodiment, a third-party entity isconsidered to be reliable if the third-party is known to the system, forexample, a third-party that uses the system for billing purposes orprovides payments to various entities via the system. In an embodiment,a third-party entity is considered to be reliable if the third-party isknown to the system and has various indicia of reliability, for example:

-   -   a good credit rating by other businesses, including ratings        relating to payment, accuracy of disclosed information,        follow-through and courtesy;    -   a good credit rating on individual business transactions,        including ratings relating; to payment, accuracy of disclosed        information, follow-through and courtesy;    -   patterns of payment indicating a history of prompt payment;    -   history and current trends of the ratio of the business's        receivables and receipts to the business's payables;    -   relationships with other businesses;    -   additional items: shared delivery or shared purchasing to        improve conditions and spread risks; and    -   special service level agreements and guarantees.

In various other embodiments, third-party entities could be determinedto be reliable using any type of relevant, publicly availableinformation such as, for example:

a favorable, publicly available credit rating;

a long history of stable business operations;

publicly known connections with other businesses that are known to bereliable.

In an embodiment, additionally or alternatively, the system may identifyconnections that relate to third-party entities that are considered tobe unreliable (e.g. a bad credit risk).

In step 2808, the system determines a reliability rating of the entitybased the relevancy of the social connections of the entity tothird-party entities. In an embodiment, the entity receives a favorablereliability rating where the number of social connections of the entityrelating to reliable third party entities meets a threshold number, forexample, 5.

In an embodiment, a relevancy factor is calculated comprising apercentage of all of the entity's social connection that relate to areliable third-party entity, and the entity receives a favorablereliability rating where the number of social connections of the entityrelating to reliable third party entities meets a threshold factor, forexample, 30 percent or 50 percent.

In an embodiment, the threshold factor varies based on the number of allthe entity's social connections. For example, the threshold factor mighttypically be only 30 or 50 percent for most entities, but since as thenumber of existing connections for an entity in a social network grows,the percentage of actually verifiable connections plummets. Thus, thethreshold factor used will depend on the number of relevant connections;for example, an entity with only 3 to 5 friends would require a 100percent relevancy factor, while an entity with more than 20,000 friendswould probably not be able to reach more than a few percent relevancyfactor, but all the matches, if provided, should be found in those20,000. In an embodiment, a sliding scale for the threshold factor isused, and the range then changes accordingly. In various embodiments,based on experience, the scale may be adjusted from time to time to takenew findings into account.

In an embodiment, the weights of relevant social connections, determinedas discussed above, could be used in the reliability ratingdetermination. For example, a relevant social connection that is presentin two social networks could count as two (or any other number greaterthan one) relevant connections for the purposes of calculating arelevancy factor for an entity's social connections. In various otherembodiments, weights of relevant social connections could be used in thereliability rating determination using any suitable mathematicaltechnique or logical methodology that factors weights of socialconnections into the determination, as will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

In an embodiment, additionally or alternatively, an entity's socialconnections that relate to third-parties that are considered to beunreliable could be used in the reliability rating determination. Forexample, the number (or some fraction thereof) of an entity's socialconnection that relate to third-parties that are considered to beunreliable could be subtracted from the number entity's socialconnections that relate to third-parties that are considered to bereliable for the purposes of calculating a relevancy factor for anentity's social connections. In various other embodiments, entity'ssocial connections that relate to third-parties that are considered tobe unreliable could be used in the reliability rating determinationusing any suitable mathematical technique or logical methodology thatfactors unreliable social connections into the determination, as will bereadily apparent to those skilled in the art.

In an embodiment, where an entity receives an unfavorable reliabilityrating, or fails to receive a favorable one, the entity may be deniedregistration with the system or may be denied access rights to view ormodify the options of an existing account with the system. In anembodiment, social connections for entities that are currentlyregistered with the system may be periodically reevaluated to determinesuch entities' continuing reliability.

It is clear that many modifications and variations of the systems andmethods disclosed herein may be made by one skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit of the novel art of this present disclosure.

These modifications and variations do not depart from its broader spiritand scope, and the examples cited here are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

For example, in some cases, additional collaboration around the invoicesand payments can be provided. This can be in the form of notes that areallowed to go back and forth, be associated with the bills for the longterm. They may be displayed as bubbles appearing over or along theinvoices and or payments. Further, it should allow a customer toformally dispute all or part of an invoice as part of the system,immediately

Further, supporting documents etc. may be attached to invoices and orpayments and or disputes, in the form of additional payload informationattached as documents, pictures, and other rich information to beassociated with the bills. These may be stores in the SAAS Cloud ordownloaded to a local machine at the user's location.

Furthermore, stronger notion of a customer or vendor portal forreceiving/paying bills or sending/collecting on bills in conjunctionwith the accounting integration, meta data, additional documents, etc.,as well as additional notification channels.

In some cases, a SAAS-based system for sending bills and payments inconjunction with a third-party accounting system may deploy adownloadable program interface to configure the third-party accountingsystem and then send and receive data between the two systems.Alternatively, a communication module between SAAS units (CSU) may bedeployed to configure the third-party accounting system and then sendand receive data between the two systems. Further, the transmitted billsmay contain an electronic signature, a line item billing, and/or othertransaction-specific meta data, and, based on cash flow needs andoutstanding bills, some or all customers may be offered a verysubstantial time-limited discount for immediate payment. Also, customersmay use the line-item billing feature to withhold partial payments forspecific issues attributed to specific items.

In alternate embodiments, the present disclosure is implemented incomputer hardware, firmware, software, and/or combinations thereof.Apparatus of the present disclosure can be implemented in a computerprogram product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer-readablestorage device for execution by a programmable processor; and methodsteps of the present disclosure can be performed by a programmableprocessor executing a program of instructions to perform functions ofthe present disclosure by operating on input data and generating output.The present disclosure can be implemented advantageously in one or morecomputer programs that are executable on a programmable system includingat least one programmable processor coupled to receive data andinstructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a datastorage system, at least one input device, and at least one outputdevice. Each computer program can be implemented in a high-levelprocedural or object-oriented programming language or in assembly ormachine language if desired; and in any case, the language can be acompiled or interpreted language. Suitable processors include, by way ofexample, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memoryand/or a random access memory. Generally, a computer will include one ormore mass storage devices for storing data files; such devices includemagnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and optical disks. Storage devices suitable fortangibly embodying computer program instructions and data (also calledthe “non-transitory computer-readable storage media”) include all formsof non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memorydevices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic diskssuch as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks;and CD-ROM disks. Any of the foregoing can be supplemented by, orincorporated in, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) andother forms of hardware.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computingdevice, from a user purporting to act on behalf of an entity, logincredentials for at least one website, wherein the at least one websiteis a social networking website, and the login credentials relate to atleast one account on the social networking website that is purported tobe an account associated with the entity; retrieving, using thecomputing device, using the login credentials, social data relating tothe entity from the at least one website, the social data comprising aplurality of social connections, each of the plurality of socialconnections reflecting a respective relationship between the entity anda respective third party; determining, using the computing device, aplurality of relevant social connections, the plurality of relevantsocial connections comprising at least a first subset of the pluralityof social connections, each social connection of the first subset of theplurality of social connects reflecting a relationship to a respectivethird party that is deemed to be reliable; and determining, using thecomputing device, a reliability rating of the entity based on theplurality of relevant social connections.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein the at least one website is a plurality of social networkingwebsites, and the login credentials relate to a plurality of accounts onthe plurality of social networking websites that are purported to beaccounts associated with the entity.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein arespective third party associated with a respective social connection isdeemed to be reliable where the respective third party is a member of afinancial service.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the respectivethird party has further received favorable ratings from other members ofthe financial service.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the respectivethird party has further exhibited a pattern of payment, via thefinancial service, to other members of the service indicating a historyof on time payments.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the respectivethird party associated with the respective social connection is deemedto be reliable based on the history and current trends of the ratio ofthe third party's receivables and receipts to the third party'spayables.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one website isa plurality of websites, the method further comprising: identifying,using the computing device, a plurality of overlapping socialconnections, the plurality of overlapping social connections comprisingat least a second subset of the plurality of social connections, whereineach of the second subset of the plurality of connections reflects arespective relationship to a respective third party shared by at leastone other social connection of the second subset of the plurality ofsocial connections.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein where a respectivesocial connection of the plurality of relevant social connections isalso in the plurality of overlapping social connections, the respectivesocial connection receives an increased weight in determining thereliability rating.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reliabilityrating is based on a number of social connections in the plurality ofrelevant connections, and the reliability rating is favorable where thenumber of the social connections exceeds a threshold number.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the reliability rating is based on percentageof the plurality of social relationships that are in the plurality ofrelevant social relationships, and the reliability rating is favorablewhere the percentage exceeds a threshold percentage.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the threshold percentage is varies based on a numberof the plurality of social relationships.
 12. The method of claim 10,further comprising: receiving, by the computing device, from the userpurporting to act on behalf of an entity, a request, the requestcomprising a request to register the entity with a financial service,the request comprising registration information comprising the logincredentials for the at least one website; determining, using thecomputing device, the reliability rating of the entity is one of:favorable and unfavorable; in response to determining the reliabilityrating is favorable, accepting, using the computing device, the request;and in response to determining the reliability rating is unfavorable,rejecting, using the computing device, the request.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the entity is registered with the financial serviceand the request comprises a request to modify a service option of theservice relating to the entity.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of relevant social connections additionally comprises at leasta second subset of the plurality of social connections, each socialconnection of the second subset of the plurality of social connectsreflecting a relationship to a respective third party that is deemed tobe unreliable, wherein in the determining, the reliability rating of theentity based on the plurality of relevant social connections, arespective social connection reflecting a relationship to a third partydeemed to be reliable increases the reliability rating and a respectivesocial connection reflecting a relationship to a third party deemed tobe unreliable decreases the reliability rating.
 15. The method of claim10, wherein the retrieving the social data, determining the plurality ofrelevant social connections, and the determining a reliability ratingare periodically repeated.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: storing, by the computing device, the login credentials to afirst database in encrypted format; and storing, by the computingdevice, the social data to a second database.
 17. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage media storing thereon computer readableinstructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to: receive, from a user purporting to act on behalf ofan entity, login credentials for at least one website, wherein the atleast one website is a social networking website, and the logincredentials relate to at least one account on the social networkingwebsite that is purported to be an account associated with the entity;retrieve, using the login credentials, social data relating to theentity from the at least one website, the social data comprising aplurality of social connections, each of the plurality of socialconnections reflecting a respective relationship between the entity anda respective third party; determine, a plurality of relevant socialconnections, the plurality of relevant social connections comprising atleast a first subset of the plurality of social connections, each socialconnection of the first subset of the plurality of social connectsreflecting a relationship to a respective third party that is deemed tobe reliable; and determine a reliability rating of the entity based onthe plurality of relevant social connections.
 18. A computer systemcomprising: at least one processor; and memory storing instructionsconfigured to instruct the at least one processor to: receive, from auser purporting to act on behalf of an entity, login credentials for atleast one website, wherein the at least one website is a socialnetworking website, and the login credentials relate to at least oneaccount on the social networking website that is purported to be anaccount associated with the entity; retrieve, using the logincredentials, social data relating to the entity from the at least onewebsite, the social data comprising a plurality of social connections,each of the plurality of social connections reflecting a respectiverelationship between the entity and a respective third party; determine,a plurality of relevant social connections, the plurality of relevantsocial connections comprising at least a first subset of the pluralityof social connections, each social connection of the first subset of theplurality of social connects reflecting a relationship to a respectivethird party that is deemed to be reliable; and determine a reliabilityrating of the entity based on the plurality of relevant socialconnections.